By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A 47-year-old man was arrested yesterday after deputies investigating a nighttime theft of about 1,600 gallons of fuel from a Silver Creek gas station searched his vehicle in Doty and discovered the bed of the canopied pickup truck held two large fuel tanks, a portable pump and a nozzle.
Detectives served a search warrant at the 100 block of Elk Creek Road in Doty and also found plug-in access key pads used to override gasoline pumps, according to court documents.
Jason A. Lewis was charged in Lewis County Superior Court today with first-degree theft, first-degree trafficking in stolen property and possession of methamphetamine.
Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Eisenberg told the judge there were lots of firearms found at the residence and he would be seeking an arrest warrant for the property owner, Harold Lusk. He didn’t say specifically what for.
Charging documents describe the owner of the Texaco on the 2900 block of U.S. Highway 12 contacting law enforcement on Monday after surveillance video showed three vehicles arrive and somehow pump about $6,000 worth of fuel without paying. Taken was regular unleaded gasoline, highway diesel and off-road diesel, according to charging documents.
Sherry Lyons called deputies again on Wednesday to report that new video showed the same people returned in the early morning hours, but were unable to activate the pump. The code had been changed after the first theft.
Detectives recognized the face of a passenger of one of the vehicles who then tried to move Texaco’s security camera so it no longer faced toward the pumps, charging documents state.
Detectives – using previous information they’d been told about Lusk and possible fuel thefts – compared his driver’s license photo with the video images and concluded he was one of the three, charging documents state.
More than a month earlier, detectives had been told by an unnamed person that Lusk and his associates had been stealing large quantities of gas from local stations, according to the documents. The same person said they were cooking methamphetamine at the property, but no mention was made in Lewis’s charging documents of meth-making materials located during the search.
However, found at the Elk Creek Road property were numerous containers of gasoline, including a 55-gallon drum of it stored in a barn where Lewis’s travel trailer was parked, according to the documents.
Two baggies of suspected methamphetamine were allegedly located in Lewis’s trailer.
Lewis reportedly admitted to detectives pumping gas at the Texaco, but said he used his credit card and said he’d purchased some fuel from the men in the video for $2 per gallon, according to the documents.
Eisenberg requested Lewis’s bail be set at $20,000, in part because it appears Lewis has an extensive criminal history in California, under a different name.
Defense attorney Bob Schroeter said Lewis denies being the person with the different name.
He noted Lewis has been in the area about two years, and he was confident he would be looking for a different place to move his travel trailer.
Charging documents state deputies found a lot of gasoline of at the Doty property, but not 1,600 gallons, suggesting some had been sold or otherwise distributed.
Law enforcement had not yet located Lusk or the third man as of this afternoon.